Rain is Grace

It is grey, dreary, and raining.

I started the day off with low feelings and a head full of cotton. And it didn't really get better from there.

We found a tick today so we had to get the last of the dogs bathed before we could put the "stuff" on them. That last dog was Spike. I picked him up to carry him into the bathroom - as soon as he saw where we were heading he started to shake - he must have been remembering the last bath and the days of painful, swollen eye after it. Once we go to the bathroom I set him on the floor - he stood still, visibly shaking. Carm opened the door to the shower, and before we even said anything, he hung his head and walked in on his own. I've gotta tell you, even telling you about it has the tears pricking at my eyes. To make matters worse, when he was out and being towel dried (the part he loves), I could see how much clipper burn I had given him yesterday. How can I do all this to the little dog that I love so much? I feel unqualified to have a pet.

So that was my afternoon, on the verge of choking up... then Carm sits down and puts on CNN where they seem to take particular delight on cataloguing all the horror of the injuries of the people in Boston. I feel so bad for everyone there, what a horror to live through, or worse, not live through...

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

John Updike